China court warns against illegal fishing in riposte to South China Sea ruling

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday that people caught illegally fishing in Chinese waters could be jailed for up to a year, issuing a judicial interpretation defining those waters as including China’s exclusive economic zones.

People caught illegally fishing in Chinese waters will be jailed for up to a year

An arbitration court in The Hague ruled last month that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and that it has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions, infuriating Beijing which dismissed the case.

None of China’s reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, the court decided.

The Supreme Court made no direct mention of the South China Sea or The Hague ruling, but said its judicial interpretation was made in accordance with both Chinese law and the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which the Philippines had also bought its case.

“Judicial power is an important component of national sovereignty,” the Supreme Court said.

People who illegally enter Chinese territorial waters and refuse to leave after being driven out, or who re-enter after being driven away or being fined in the past year, will be considered to have committed “serious” criminal acts and could get up to a year in jail, the Supreme Court said.